Chatting with the Boss
by Jameson Currier

Originally from New Jersey, Sean Meriwether attended West Milford High School (“just the scariest place in the world”) and moved to New York City in 1989, where he graduated from New York University with a B.A. in English, Creative Writing, and a specialization in Dramatic Literature. As a writer, he’s contributed to a host of on-line and print venues, including Best Gay Erotica and Lodestar Quarterly. In addition to his on-line editing chores for three websites (Velvet Mafia, Outsider Ink and TheGayMaleBody.com), he recently finished co-editing Men of Mystery.

Three years ago this November, Sean founded Velvet Mafia with co-editor Greg Wharton. Late this summer, I had a few moments to chat with Sean about his writing and editing while visiting him at his apartment in Greenwich Village, which he shares with his partner, photographer Jack Slomovits, and their two dogs, Sasha and Nik Nak.

Jim Currier: Where did you get the idea for Velvet Mafia?

Sean Meriwether: Around 2000, Richard Labonté asked if I knew of any websites that published gay erotica. He was collecting stories for the Best Gay Erotica series and wanted to consider work being published online. He knew I also edited TheGayMaleBody.com, which had a number of gay artistic sites listed. At the time, there were almost no sites publishing gay erotica–Blithe House was the only prominent gay website, but they only published literary fiction; other than that there were pay sites with stroke fiction. The idea to start a gay literary site was in my mind for awhile, I had originally launched Outsider Ink for that purpose, but that ended up with a much broader focus. We ended up creating Velvet Mafia to fill the gap between literary and stroke fiction. I asked Greg Wharton to be Co-Editor, to help me bring the erotic element that he was affiliated with in suspect thoughts, and we pitched the project to Richard and asked him to come in as Editor at Large. Between the three of us, we built the first issue and a buzz for it.

Currier: How do you divvy up the tasks for creating the quarterly issues of Velvet Mafia?

Meriwether: I keep referring to myself as the “Wizard of Oz” behind the website. I’m the guy behind the scenes, putting everything together. Greg’s really the front man, publicizing the site and soliciting people for material. He’s well-connected to a lot of writers, and he’s able to get material I would never be able to, like Trebor Healey’s work, or a lot of experimental writers out of San Francisco that I would never have known about except through him.

In many ways Velvet Mafia is also a labor of love; Meriwether keeps the site ad free so that there are no potential restrictions on content. The site is hosted by Blowsquish.com, a web design company Meriwether created with his partner, photographer Jack Slomovits. The Manhattan photographer is also a key ingredient behind the success of Velvet Mafia. Each issue pairs one of Slomovits’ erotic male photos with a newly published short story.

Currier: How did you shape the look for Velvet Mafia and how did Jack’s work become integrated with the new stories?

Meriwether: I always knew one of the important elements to make the site successful was the imagery. Gay men are more naturally drawn to images, so we wanted the site to have a lot of visuals. Jack’s work has been an important part of the whole look of the site, and now a lot of our repeat visitors are drawn back not just by the fiction, but by his work as well. I was lucky being able to plunder his entire catalog to match an image with each story. It’s helped publicize his work as well, his images appear on dozens of gay lit bookcovers.

Currier: How did you turn your early web success into a company?

Meriwether: Originally, Jack and I had started with building our own individual websites, and I put together an ezine that had alternative fiction. Outsider Ink came out as an experiment to compete with some of the other literary sites that were on the internet at the time. [Outsider Ink recently celebrated its fifth anniversary online this fall, and Writer’s Digest named the site one of the top five markets for new writers in 2003.] Blowsquish became a business after the fact because we kept getting referrals for more work. We ended up building a website for our neighbor, Michael Fesco, who does “Sea Tea” in Manhattan. He loved it and showed it to somebody else who showed it to somebody else, and so on.

Currier: What have been some of the milestones for Velvet Mafia?

Meriwether: Velvet Mafia had a huge first issue. There was so much interest in it. Around 12,000 people logged on the first day. Now we get 300-400 people a day visiting the site, which translates into 40,000 reads per issue.

I have people e-mailing me from places like Zimbabwe, Russia, and Taiwan. It’s incredible to think of all these people around the world who are able to access your work, whereas a print version might be prohibitively expensive and they may not be able to get in places like China or Russia, where they have publishing restrictions. I’m also proud that we’ve accomplished all of this by word of mouth. We’ve done almost no advertising whatsoever, and to build that kind of global audience is amazing.

We have also created a new market for gay fiction that was only prevalent in some smaller anthologies—stuff that is very edgy, that is not considered safe. We want to provoke people into thought, action, sex or something exciting. We’re not here to promote gay men as assimilated and acceptable, but to present them as real people, and publish writing that is daring—and that is what is being replicated now in the print industry. I think that is amazing, that we’re having any kind of influence on the market.

And I’m pleased to see that the website has created a community of writers. I felt this especially when I was down in New Orleans for Saints and Sinners earlier this summer—I really felt that I was a part of community and was adding my voice to it.

Currier: What’s ahead for Velvet Mafia?

Meriwether: We have always talked about doing a print anthology—one of the things we wanted to do with Velvet Mafia was to create an anthology out of the work every year and have some of the stories that appear online along with new stories, but we never got around to doing that. Greg got involved in a lot of things, including Suspect Thoughts Press, and I was focused on other personal projects as well. Instead we’re actually doing other print projects with a similar mission—He Devil/She Devil—it will be very Velvet Mafia-ish. We’ve also collaborated on co-editing Men of Mystery.

For the website, I’m trying to bring in more nonfiction elements, like reviews and interviews, and to use regular contributors to give it a broader base and also a more collective feel.

Currier: And what about your own writing?

Meriwether: I'm still working on short stories for publication, but I’m trying to focus on a postponed novel—somewhat autobiographical, about escaping a small town and coming to New York City. I think it’s important to get a full-length work out there before I do a collection of my own short stories.

Greg and I have discussed in depth what a ‘hard call’ it is to be an editor and whether or not to publish your own work on your site. I used to do it earlier, when it was more difficult to get submissions. And I’ve even considered doing it under a pseudonym. But I’d rather have that spot open for someone else. It’s ironic to create a market for your writing and not be able to publish something of your own—but I’m glad there are more markets open now that I can submit to. A lot of people know me through Velvet Mafia and so that’s been a great way to get my own work noticed.

For more information on Sean Meriwether, visit him online at: seanmeriwether.com

Read Rumford's Fluid in Issue 13

Jameson Currier is a freelance writer and editor. His most recent book is Desire, Lust, Passion, Sex. Visit him online at jamesoncurrier.com for more information about his work.